Disclosed herein is a method for measuring nip width in an image production device, as well as corresponding apparatus and computer-readable medium.
The nip width is the measured arc distance created by an intersection of a soft fuser roll and a hard pressure roll in an image production device, such as a printer, copier, multi-function device, etc. If the nip width is not set properly, media sheets will not be fused (fixed) properly and cause toner (dry ink) to rub off on the prints. In addition an inadequately set nip results in accelerated roll surface wear and non-optimum gloss levels on the prints.
In conventional image production devices, the current nip set up procedure requires the operator to manually load a blank piece of paper into the fuser nip to make an impression, dust the impression with toner, and then measure the nip width with a small scale. This manual process leads to nip width variability. Nip width variability inboard to outboard along the fuser and pressure rolls can cause fuser roll edge wear, which results in significant delta gloss variability.